Concierges in downtown San Antonio hotels spend their days tirelessly promoting the San Antonio River Walk and its area businesses and attractions.

Now, businesswoman JoAnn Boone, president of Rio San Antonio Cruises, is launching a Concierge Appreciation Program to recognize those professionals for their hard work.

“The concierges in San Antonio do an amazing job,” says Boone. “Their role is more than just calling a restaurant and making a reservation. Our concierges are brilliant ambassadors who create and plan the magic for the more than 26 million visitors that flock to the Alamo City each year.”

Boone envisions an ongoing program that will provide treats and other tangible expressions of appreciation to the concierges throughout the year, such as lunches aboard one of the Rio San Antonio Cruises barges. She also wants these “Concierge Cruises” to serve as an informal way for the concierges to meet and get to know one another and share ideas about ways to promote the city.

“The concierges are so important to the economy of our city and specifically the downtown and River Walk areas,” Boone says.

Boone also wants the river barge lunches to be an opportunity for her to share with the concierges information that will keep them abreast of activities planned at Rio San Antonio in 2009.

Boone plans to kick off her Concierge Cruises at the September meeting of the Concierge Association. “There are so many wonderful and exciting things happening on the San Antonio River,” says Boone. “I am so happy to be able to thank those responsible for keeping our river traffic flowing.”

Quinceañera wish

Fifteen-year-old cancer survivor Olivia Ibarra will receive her wish for a Quinceañera, thanks to the Annual PriscillasAdvice.com’s Quinceañera Expo, which was held this year on Aug. 24 in San Antonio. The popular yearly event attracts more than 2,000 attendees and 30 exhibitors. This year, the event’s vendors and sponsors joined forces with Priscilla Mora, aka “The Fairy Godmother of Quinceañeras,” and presented Ibarra with an all expense paid Quinceañera extravaganza.

Ibarra is part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She was diagnosed with acute leukemia in April 2007 and has endured countless treatments of chemotherapy, blood and platelets. She specifically requested San Antonio’s Quinceanera planner, Priscilla Mora, to plan her dream Quinceañera.

“Olivia’s tenacity and positive attitude have inspired so many people that have learned of her story,” says Mora, Expo Director. “We are truly blessed to have met her, and are both honored and humbled to help make her wish of a princess-like Quinceañera a reality.”

Big bank on campus

Frost Bank has opened a branch at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s (UTSA) main campus, in the University Center.

Frost Bank is the first bank UTSA has invited to serve its campus community.

The new Frost UTSA bank location will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and will include a walk-up ATM, which will be accessible until midnight. Courtney Zinsmeyer has been named the financial center manager.

Frost is the banking, investments and insurance subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. (NYSE: CFR), a financial holding company headquartered in San Antonio, with assets of $13.7 billion at June 30, 2008.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Texas and the second largest of nine academic universities and six health institutions in the UT System.

It serves more than 28,500 students in 64 bachelor’s, 44 master’s and 20 doctoral degree programs in the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and Graduate School.

— Tamarind Phinisee

Financial smarts

Security Service Federal Credit Union (SSFCU) will host a financial education workshop on Wed., Sept. 24 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at its headquarters at 16211 La Cantera Parkway.

The workshop will be on the topic: Strategies for Surviving the Volatile Market: Are you properly equipped for an unpredictable market? It is free and open to the public.

SSFCU offers financial education workshops at no charge as a public service to the community to help individuals achieve personal financial success. Credit union workshops are presented on a monthly basis on a variety of topics that range from investments to estate planning and other financial topics.

SSFCU requests that those interested in attending make seating reservations online at www.ssfcu.org or by calling the reservation hotline at 1-866-809-6354.

— Tamarind Phinisee

White Cane Safety Day

In honor of National White Cane Safety Day, the Low Vision Resource Center, a nonprofit organization, will conduct a 5K Fun Run, a 2-mile Walk and a Children’s Sprint on Saturday, Oct. 11, beginning at 8 a.m.

The events will be held at Comanche Lookout Park, 16000 Nacogdoches Road, in collaboration with the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department’s Therapeutic Recreation Program.

The white cane is commonly accepted as a “symbol of blindness” and those carrying white canes are legally afforded the right of way when crossing a road or in a public place. Race participants do not need to be visually impaired, although the events are designed to call the public’s attention to the white cane and what it means.

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